This invention relates generally to methods and systems for configuring imaging tools. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and systems for focusing and aligning imaging tools located in a housing component for use in a predefined embedded application, such as an airbag deployment.
Embedded computers and other types of systems are making increasing use of various imaging tools. Different types of imaging tools can be used in a wide variety of different applications. For example, an imaging tool such as a digital video camera can be used by an airbag deployment application to identify the position of an occupant and make better deployment decisions. In such a context, the imaging tool can identify the position of the occupant within the physical space of the vehicle, and determine whether the movement characteristics of the occupant are such that the vehicle must be in a state of crashing, and whether the occupant will be within an at-risk-zone by the time in which an airbag could be deployed. Similarly, surveillance systems can use imaging tools to monitor specific areas of physical space, and potentially support various security-related processing. Industrial robots and other automated devices may incorporate various imaging tools as a set of “eyes” necessary to achieve there functions. Numerous other examples of image-based processing can be provided, and the number of image-based technologies may increase dramatically in the future as computation power becomes less expensive, inviting increased use of embedded imaging tools in various applications.
Regardless of the particular purpose of the imaging tool, it is often very important to focus and align the imaging tool in an accurate and cost-effective manner. Many image-based technologies are particularly vulnerable to slight deficiencies of focus or alignment. Moreover, the very purpose of the imaging tool may be to capture certain spatial relationships between objects in the sensor region. Such purposes are susceptible to even slight alignment, focus, and other configuration deviations. Heuristic processes can be performed on the images captured by various imaging tools. Many of those heuristics are dependent upon the imaging tool working within certain focus and alignment parameters. For example, an airbag deployment system may capture two-dimensional images of an occupant to determine the position of the occupant within three-dimensional space to determine whether or not the occupant is within the at-risk-zone of the airbag (e.g. too close to the deploying airbag) at the time of deployment. A difference of a few millimeters can make the difference between desirably deploying an airbag and the deployment of an airbag when the occupant is too close to the airbag. A discrepancy of mere microns between a correctly aligned imaging tool and an incorrectly imaging tool can substantially impair the ability of the imaging tool to capture images in an airbag deployment context.
Other uses of imaging tools are similarly vulnerable to undesirable tolerance stacking. The implementation of such imaging tools typically require manual configuration, and thus tend to be expensive and inaccurate.